Thursday, August 03, 2006

Three days, three Lieber-encounters

I returned to the site of my first Lieber-encounter (Waldbaum's in West Hartford) to see if the Lieber-people were still collecting petitions...

Aug.2. After work. I wanted to see if they were still collecting signatures (and I needed something to eat). This time there was a man collecting signatures (no sign of the woman from Monday). Following the script he was asking people to "put Joe Lieberman on the ballot". However, he had no problem mentioning that this was in case Lieberman loses in the Primary. When I asked where he was from he said Missouri and pointed to his witness and said the witness was from CT. He asked where I was from (I said West Hartford) and if I would sign. The other day I didn't sign because I didn't want to help their cause (by signing my real name) or sign a false name (which would cause more work for the people reviewing the signatures). But despite my qualms, this time I did sign mainly to see if they would check my ID. They did not ask for ID or anything else after I signed. The witness didn't say anything the whole time, just watched while Mr. Missouri did the talking.

The Lieberman setup is at the exit door. They had a table out with a bunch of clipboards with petitions. I think each petition was for a different town (as it should be). You'll notice a complete absence of any Lieberman signs, shirts, etc. From a few feet away, unless you overheard them, you wouldn't know why they were collecting signatures. No signage. No nothing.